This invention relates to portable computing devices such as calculators and, more particularly, to the format for displaying information on the device's display screen.
Portable computing devices such as calculators typically display information line-by-line, like the text on this page. This information may include mathematical expressions such as equations having variables, operators and other symbols which are displayed in a single-height linear format. More advanced devices include a larger display screen that can display several lines of information simultaneously. But in neither case is the information displayed in the form most familiar to the user-the way it appears printed in textbooks and journals and the way a user normally writes it with pencil and paper. To most users, mathematical expressions displayed in the more familiar "textbook" or "graphical" format are easier to read and understand than expressions displayed in the linear format.